UPDATE - German police launch nationwide raids targeting climate activists

UPDATES WITH REACTIONS, EDITS THROUGHOUT

BERLIN (AA) – German police raided the homes of Last Generation climate activists on Wednesday as part of an investigation into recent protests.

Munich prosecutors launched investigations into seven suspects age 22 to 38 on charges of “forming or supporting a criminal organization,” Bavaria’s Criminal Police Office said in a statement.

“The suspects are accused of organizing a fundraising campaign to finance the criminal acts committed by ‘Last Generation,’ propagating these acts on their website, and collecting a sum of at least €1.4 million ($1.5 billion) in donations,” the police said.

Two suspects are also suspected of having tried to sabotage the Trieste-Ingolstadt oil pipeline in the southeastern state of Bavaria in April 2022.

“The aim of the searches is to find evidence of the membership structure of Last Generation to further clarify their financing and to confiscate assets,” the authorities said.

The police carried out searches at 15 properties in seven federal states, including Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, and Berlin, according to the prosecutors.

In recent months Last Generation sparked controversy in Germany with their radical protests and extreme actions. Climate activists glued their hands to famous paintings in museums and blocked highways and even airport runways to attract media attention.

The environmental group heavily criticized the police raid and vowed to continue its protests in the coming days to increase pressure on the government.

"The federal government is driving us toward a climate hell with its eyes wide open, it is even pressing on the gas pedal,” Last Generation’s speaker Aimee van Baalen told a news conference in Berlin.

“We must continue to resist now, we must continue to demand protecting lives, that is the top priority right now,” she said.

Environmental group Greenpeace also criticized the latest police crackdown on climate activists.

“People who campaign for more climate protection must not be criminalized at a time when politicians ignore climate targets,” the group said on Twitter.

Last Generation activists have long criticized the German government for not taking serious measures to limit global warming, but instead further investing in fossil fuel infrastructure and endangering the future of humankind.